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Why do manufactured products look the way they do? Often it’s practical necessity. Sometimes it’s aesthetic tradition. In the case of sanitaryware, it’s due historically to the materials limits of Vitreous China and Fine Fire Clay. Enter

More statements from some of our Architonic's most valued members, partners and friends during this, our tenth anniversary year. It's all about you, guys._

Nominated for this year's Design Prize Switzerland, Zurich-based designer Beat Karrer's material innovation FluidSolids, with its strong ecological credentials and impressive programmability, is poised to give traditional materials like metal and

The annual London Design Festival, now with over 300 city-wide events, reflects the British capital's status as an international creative hub. But it also provides a platform for scores of indigenous designer-makers – both individuals and brands

For a colourless, odourless gas, CO2 packs a punch. It now accounts for 76% of all greenhouse-gas emissions. So how do you communicate to a fair-going public the relative merits of different materials when it comes to carbon emissions? Materials

Contemporary architects internationally are breathing new life into the old tradition of using ceramic elements on exteriors. The result are striking facades that marry expressive ornament with sustainability.

Feeling a little bit lost? It's no surprise, really. As populations grow, cities expand, international travel increases and we all work (and live) harder and faster, it seems that there are ever more new and complex terrains to navigate. Enter a

3D-printed architecture might seem like the stuff of the future, but a number of architects are experimenting to try to turn tomorrow's fantasy builds into today's innovative projects. Architonic investigates.

Major demographic shifts, including an ageing population and the increase in a younger workforce, present serious challenges for the office landscape. What do the different generations who come together to work want and need from their office

There's a long tradition of architectural photography presenting viewers with depopulated spaces – interior and exterior landscapes, devoid of the very users for which they have been designed. Celebrated Dutch photographer IWAN BAAN's unparalleled

Increased urban congestion. Climate change and sustainability. Urban regeneration. The reasons for the burgeoning movement in highly considered, integrated green spaces in towns and cities around the globe are as manifold as the forms they take.

The working environment changes and with it interior designs do so, too. It is more than ever essential to create environments, where employees feel comfortable. Apart from a good payment and an interesting perspective it is the working environment

Plugging in to Belgrade Design Week means a number of things. A high-calibre line-up of international speakers. Inspiring conversations and encounters. And a lot of parties. The Serbian capital shows how it’s done.

As ever-taller skyscrapers increasingly dominate the urban landscape, London-based architecture and design journalist Dominic Lutyens asks how designers can push the boundaries of interiors ever further upwards.

With an increase in international travel predicted for 2013, on the heels of a rebound for hoteliers last year, the hotel industry is looking more than ever for ways to make the visitor experience a memorable and profitable one. Enter striking

Architonic has been invited to partner up with Field Trip, Google’s location-experience app that alerts you to interesting stuff in your general vicinity. Smartphone users will now be able to locate the best architectural projects nearby –

Architonic isn't just a virtual showcase of products and materials. It's an international community, made up of real people. This year sees ten years of Architonic, so we asked some of our valued members, partners and friends to say a few words about

Materials Council has been busy. Founded in partnership with Architonic in 2012, the leading London-based consultancy has proved in a mere nine months its expertise and relevance to architects, manufacturers and business, providing indispensable

Nature does a pretty good job of shaping our environment. But what happens when innovation and creative thinking are applied to the more sustainable natural materials out there? Leading materials consultancy Materials Council investigates the

Tobias Lutz and Nils Becker came unstuck with their first start-up. Their second ranks among the biggest online research platforms for architecture and design. This year sees Architonic celebrate its tenth year in business, while making the leap to

As the world's busiest revolving door, New York is no stranger to new cultural sights and influences. This year's New York Design Week saw a raft of Latin American designers and design collectives exhibit their highly polished and conceptually

Piccoli oggetti architettonici – dal Canada al Messico, dalla Norvegia al Cile, dagli USA alla Sicilia – crescono da un lato all’altro del pianeta sull’onda di nuove pratiche e nuovi istinti progettuali. La giornalista Valentina Ciuffi

There's strength in numbers. A new date in the international design-expo calendar – The May Design Series – has successfully brought together and revitalised two pre-existing specialist fairs, creating an impressive showcase for high-end

When was the last time a building won an award for the way it sounds? Architecture, and by extension society, has long privileged the visual over the aural. Yet a number of architects are starting to think and design in a more complete sensory way,

A recent panel discussion at Washington DC’s International Design Festival got to grips with the somewhat provocative question, “What Happened to American Design?”, the implication being it doesn't enjoy the singular, coherent identity of other

In eight short years, Belgrade Design Week has put the Serbian capital on the creative map, playing annual host to an unmissable pow-wow of the finest creative minds around.

With an expanded North American sales team, a bigger presence at this year's ICFF in New York, and two brand-new apps – 'Best American Design Brands' and 'Best Canadian Design Brands' – Architonic has gone all transatlantic.

Journalist Klaus Leuschel provides a crash course in, and a guided tour of, grand hotels, and how even design excellence in the five-star tradition is of no avail when the quality of hospitality does not match it.

Need more light in your life? The second part of Architonic's survey of high-end lighting design from this year's Euroluce fair in Milan should provide the illumination you're looking for.

We may live in somewhat gloomy times, but this year’s confident edition of Euroluce – the biennial international lighting showcase at the Milan Salone del Mobile – shone brighter than an old-fashioned 100-Watt light bulb.

No one provides you with as an exhaustive and detailed photographic coverage of the annual Milan Furniture Fair as Architonic. On this we pride ourselves. If you weren't able to make it to the 2013 edition of the mother of all design trade fairs,

Un collage di storie e realtà urbane da tutto il mondo: la risposta di BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, Topotek1 e Superflex al quartiere più multiculturale di Copenhagen

Costantemente alla ricerca di come trasmettere un valore ai prodotti, oggi più che mai stiamo assistendo ad una rinascita dell’approccio artigianale nel mondo del design. Dove se non a Brera, il quartiere principale del design di Milano, da tempo

Many hands make light work, goes the old saying. Many new LED producers also make the creative possibilities of working with such a fast-changing technology exciting, thanks to the proliferation of products they bring to the market. But, for lighting

Three score old and in rude health: the iF design gold awards, handed out to a painstakingly selected, international cohort of companies at the recent Munich Creative Business Week for their outstanding products, is looking to the future.

The spring of architectural creativity is in full flow, with a number of offices internationally adding value to the age-old practice of therapeutic bathing. Here's our selection of the best of the latest spa and wellness architecture. Go ahead. The

The biggest, the fastest, the smartest. When it comes to marketing-speak, there's nothing like a superlative to liven things up. Best of Best – the annual exhibition held at imm cologne of the category winners from the Interior Innovation Award

Head north and you'll find a thriving design culture where the level of consideration given to the way things look, feel and work isn't determined by their scale. Be they housing projects, chairs or taps, the Scandinavian approach to design continues

System furniture did what it's wont to do at this year's imm cologne: expand. A number of new and innovative furniture programmes, modular in nature, were shown alongside augmented and reworked old favourites. It's all about joined-up thinking.

If you think textile design is, well, a little two-dimensional, think again. Contemporary producers of high-quality woven materials for interiors are busy exploring all sorts of innovative directions in terms of materials, processes and applications.

More than 500 young and emerging designers have taken to the [D3] Design Talents stage at the Cologne Furniture Fair over the past ten years, presenting their ideas in prototype form to both an industry and a general audience. Architonic takes a look

‘Are Swiss architects unable to create interesting buildings?’, asked Felix E Müller, editor-in-chief of Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, in a recent article. ‘Unfortunately, all new buildings look the same.’ With this provocative statement,

stilhaus – the new design destination in Switzerland – doesn't do things by halves. 20,000 square metres of retail and exhibition space next to one of the country's busiest motorway intersections offers architects, planners and end consumers an

Everything changes, so they say. But should it? What about decades-old, often iconic designs? Should they be preserved, as it were, their contemporary production remaining ‘true’ in every respect to the ‘original’? Or ought manufacturers be

In spite of the rise of e-commerce, the physical point of sale is still with us. That said, the traditional store is having to up its game in terms of the experience and brand relevance it offers consumers – not only to compete with online shopping

"It is our aim to provide readers and the market with an efficient and high-quality environment for research, inspiration and communication. To this end, Architonic and Designboom are a perfect match because they complement each other both in terms

Ventura, the avant-garde brand of Swiss watches, is back. The first "manufacture électronique" for high quality digital watches has recently presented, in the shape of the SPARC MGS, a timepiece which once more sets a new benchmark in chronometer

More often than not, office architecture can be, well, a little inward-looking. Shut out the outside world and focus staffers' attention on their building's interior spaces and you'll keep them focused on their work. Right? Wrong. The OperAlp/SALEWA

If the Slow Design movement were looking for a poster boy, Ask Emil Skovgaard would undoubtedly be on the shortlist. Treading a fine and virtuosic line between design, craft and art, the Copenhagen-based creative’s work is, among other things, an

We'd like to talk to you about a delicate matter. The toilet. The WC. The lavatory. However you choose to refer to it, we all require regular access to this most prosaic of environments. Which is why it's refreshing to see a number of recent public

Lighting always has to work harder when it's deployed in underground spaces. But when the space in question is a museum one, where the considered illumination of its exhibits is key – not to mention their protection against the potentially damaging

When it came to launching their latest family of products, high-end Swiss bathroom manufacturer decided to buck the trend for the ultra-rational and focus on building on the softer, timeless design language of its earlier Palomba collection. The

FluidSolids® is a composite material consisting of renewable natural raw materials. It is made up of fibre, filling materials and a binding agent. All of these materials are generated as industrial waste in the processing of renewable raw materials.

White. But not as you know it. Newly launched creative materials consultancy Materials Council's inaugural show at this year's Super Brands London neatly demonstrated that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to that most pure of colours.

While the London Design Festival's big-top design destinations, such as Super Brands London, Tent, designjunction and 100% Design pulled large crowds, a number of design brands used their city showrooms as spaces for serving up fascinating slices of

From a global view of history of design, the Czech design scene still remains at the edge of historical periods and styles. Despite that fact, some great Czech designers have found themselves in an international context in the past.

At a former industrial site in the West of Zurich, young people show the potential of an open floor plan, how to build sustainably using recycled materials, how to be resource conscious, and demonstrate that food from Aldi – a discounter – can

Among and around the buildings that will house hockey players and hurdlers, cyclists and swimmers throughout the duration of this summer’s Olympic Games in London are public spaces that strive to meet the exacting Olympic standards of excellence

It could be argued that the pinnacle of urban landscape architecture was reached in seventeenth century France and the French formal gardens or in Britain's philantrophic Victorian public parks in the ninenteenth century. Contemporary urban

The Milan fair provides the ideal setting for the premiere of Architonic Concept Space IV. And this will be a global first because never before has the FluidSolids® material, developed over many years and patented by the prestigious Swiss designer

An important component of the Japanese art of lacquerwork is the special technique known as "urushi", which uses many layers of wafer-thin, semi-transparent lacquer to create a surface of almost mystical radiance and sensual depth.

Every city evolves differently, according to fluctuations in population and wealth, changes in industry and other social and economic factors. As old buildings are replaced, or new ones constructed, spaces between these buildings appear or alter;

To graft is a way of rethinking the seemingly irreconcilable. On this basis, Gregor Hoheisel, Christoph Körner, Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit have developed complex fusion methods and reinvigorated the contemporary discourse

It's forty years since the love-it-or-hate-it, style-driven phenomenon that was postmodernism first emerged in architectural practice, soon manifesting itself in design, art, fashion and music. The V&A's major new show, 'Postmodernism: Style and

Hannes Wettstein is considered one of the most significant and innovative designers of our times. His most important works will now be displayed in an exhibition - put together by Studio Hannes Wettstein, presented by Institut gta.

Cersaie offers not just a comprehensive overview of the variety of ceramic surfaces available on the market but also of the latest developments in the bathroom field. In Bologna at the end of September visitors will be able to discover the latest

A number of recently completed kindergarten projects have proved that designing user-centred environments for the more diminutive among us shouldn't be at odds with creating highly expressive structures. Architonic takes a look at a selection of

Welche Form hat der Gegenstand, der uns das JETZT zeigt? Wie sind die Dinge beschaffen, die uns in diesem Moment umgeben? Welche Schlüsse lassen die uns umgebenden gestalteten Dinge auf unsere Zeit, unseren sozialen Status zu? Und wieweit werden

If music be the food of love, then where better to dine out than a world-class concert hall or opera house? Here, Architonic examines a number of recently completed architectural projects that perform as hard as the artists who take to their stages.

Perforated walls, panels and screens have been used for centuries as a way to control the level of light entering a building or to offer privacy to the occupants. The functions of perforations have remained largely the same, but the materials and

When young British designer Samuel Wilkinson set out to redesign the standard low-energy light bulb, with the aim of making it work just as hard aesthetically as it does environmentally, he was in for a long trek. Journeying beyond the safe and

A retrospective of the work of industrial-design master Kenneth Grange at London's Design Museum celebrates the prolific designer's contribution to shaping British material culture, while encouraging us to think about the purpose and responsibilities

Most people have at one time or another spent the night in a tent and have benefited from the protection provided by its fabric, while at the same time enjoying the sensation of being separated from nature by nothing more than a thin shell. Textile

Brick is one of the most ancient and familiar building materials known to man, and its strength, character and flexibility of use continue to attract architects working on innovative contemporary buildings. Architonic examines some key projects that

As the cost of hosting major sporting events continues to rise, the need for something positive to be left behind once the fun and games are over becomes ever more vital. Architonic examines past and future events and the differing approaches to

Behind every great design there's a great designer. But, more often than not, there are a number players involved. Meet Claus Mølgaard, the go-to Danish design engineer whose work on products for the likes of Ron Arad and the Bouroullec Brothers

Professor Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape Landscape Architects, is one of the world's leading landscape designers. He gave a revolutionary lecture at the IFLA congress in Zurich, entitled 'Reinventing the good earth'.

Rich Brilliant Willing – even if the name of the design studio run by Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams has a slightly ironic touch, it is an accurate characterisation of the trio – they are rich in ideas, their designs are

She may elect to spell her name all lower case, but matali crasset's work is big on concept and ambition. Yet, the Paris-based designer, who's collaborated with the likes of Established & Sons and Pallucco, insists she's not that interested in

Concrete has in recent times become a highly popular material for product and furniture design. One of the founders of this trend is Studio IVANKA, which was established in Budapest by Katalin and Andras Ivanka in 2003.

For the first time since it was founded in 2005, Design Miami/ Basel was this year under the new direction of Marianne Goebl, who curated the trade fair with an expert eye. In February 2011 she followed in the footsteps of Ambra Medda who, after

In the third of our series of interviews from this year's Milan Furniture Fair with some of the creative industries' leading figures, we meet Lorenza Luti, marketing and retail director of established Italian brand Kartell, which, after 50 years in

As every spring, Architonic travelled to New York on your behalf in order to investigate the latest trends on the North American market for you. Here we report on what we discovered in the city's showrooms and at the ICFF.

There was a time when context was everything in construction. Local materials were transformed by the ambition and skill of the builder into a functional, stylistically appropriate structure. In the face of an, at times seemingly inexorable, movement

In the second of our series of four interviews with four leading design figures from this year's Milan Furniture Fair, Architonic meets Alessandro Mendini – designer, architect, writer, theorist and all-round provocateur. Mendini, who turns 80 this

A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums might no longer be in the business of pageantry. In this third, and final, part of a series examining the notion of the post-spectacle museum, Architonic meets Michael

Miljana Nikolic and Dimitrios Stamatakis are two of the 14 winners of the 'Young Balkan Designers' competition initiated by the Mikser organisation who exhibited their work under the same name at Salone Satellite 2011.

In the first of four interviews from the 2011 Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile with four very different figures from the creative world – an internationally celebrated architect, a grand master of Italian design, a strongly concept-led

'Awards come and go,' says Benjamin Hubert. 'They're not a mark of good design, that's for sure.' You'd be forgiven for thinking that there's more than a touch of false modesty or disingenuity at work here, given the celebratory press coverage the

When designers and leading industrial enterprises put their heads together, it usually gets exciting. While such a collaboration allows industry the possibility of demonstrating its special capabilities in a completely new context, its manufacturing

It's somewhat fitting, given the almost lyric quality of his name, that Canadian-born designer Yorgo Lykouria should be interested in reintroducing the poetic into everyday life. His latest product for premium bathroom brand Alape is a wash basin

The bathroom is an environment which doesn't only adapt constantly to the changes dictated by design and fashion, but has also been revolutionised in a technical sense.At ISH 2011 in Frankfurt Architonic went on the track of the latest developments

More and more prestigious manufacturers of up-market design products participated in this year's EuroShop, a clear indication of the significant international role of this Düsseldorf trade fair. As a result this successful trade fair is a model of

Put a group of designers, curators and design writers in a room and what do you get? The Dornbracht Conversations. The third annual platform for intelligent dialogue on the state of design, past, present and future, hosted by German design

In Kürze eröffnet eine Ausstellung über Buckminster Fuller im Marta Herford Museum. Gestaltet wurde sie von Sir Norman Foster, der mit Richard Buckminster Fuller zwischen 1968 bis 1983 an verschiedenen Projekten zusammenarbeitete.

The principles of geodesic construction were developed by the pioneering American architect and engineer R Buckminster Fuller in the middle of the last century as part of his efforts to use science and technology to address universal issues. His

Shuffling off this mortal coil is something we all, sadly, have to do. There's no opting out. But while mortality might be a great leveller, a number of architects have shown recently how designing environments that process death – be it in

With ISH Frankfurt 2011 – the leading international trade fair for all things bathroom – about to open its doors, Architonic takes a look at just some of the new products that will be on show. We've kept it clean.

A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums are no longer in the business of pageantry. In this second part of a series examining post-spectacle museums, architect Brad Cloepfil talks about the phenomenon of

In January one of the world's major trade fairs for architecture, materials and systems took place in the halls of the new Munich trade fair site. We now round off our collection of reports with this third part of our look back at the exhibition, in

Few design brands evoke as much warmth on the part of consumers as the heritage-steeped Finnish company Artek, currently celebrating 75 years in business. Co-founded in 1935 by the hero of Scandinavian modernism Alvar Aalto, Artek has certainly

With thermal under-apparel in place, Architonic ventured forth from the exhibition halls of the Koelnmesse during this January's imm cologne to visit Passagen – the ever-growing programme of off-fair exhibitions and events in showrooms, galleries,

The impression we got during our visit to BAU 2011, which took place in Munich from 17 to 22 January, has been confirmed by the published visitor numbers. The fair was a resounding success and is therefore fully justified in describing itself as "The

'Regrets, I've had a few,' sang Sinatra in his classic ballad 'My Way', while Piaf famously insisted that she regretted absolutely nothing. Somewhere between these two lies Ronan Bouroullec, one half of the distinguished French go-to design duo, the

At Bau 2011 the principal focus was very much on sustainability. For a long time now a large number of manufacturers have been responding to this trend and to the new ecological benchmarks, and at the fair environmentally certified products were

Good architecture creates environments that are, among other things, enjoyable to spend time in and practical to use, and in no scenario is this more important than the provision of treatment or support for those dealing with illness or trauma.

Punching well above their weight this year at imm cologne were the young guns exhibiting in the sixth edition of the [D3] Design Contest, the platform for emerging international design talent. Here, we talk to one of the two joint-winners, Harry

'Maybe I don't like objects.' It's not every day you hear such a statement from a designer, particularly one as celebrated as Tokujin Yoshioka, who was recognised as A&W Designer of the Year 2011 during this year's imm cologne, But, then again,

Ireland is in a reflective mood these days. With the island nation on the edge of Europe facing up to the reality of a severely damaged economy and a decimated construction industry, nostalgia is doing what it's wont to do.

It's fair to say that certain countries have, over the years, been more successful than others in terms of marketing a distinctive and compelling national design identity abroad. The very human kind of modernism expressed in the furniture of postwar

Robin Day, one of Britain's greatest designers, whose illustrious career spanned seven decades, dies at the age of 95

'Waste not, want not' is an expression that has become increasingly pertinent in recent years as economic conditions have forced many of us to tighten our belts and make the most of what we have, rather than constantly replacing old with new. This

Accommodating one or two people only or a group, extendable tables can be adapted to a romantic tète-a-tète, a family with children or even a large festive gathering. Here we present the various types and systems which are available.

In the world of design, China's rapid-manufacturing prowess and the oil-fuelled 'tabula rasa' urban developments of countries such as the UAE and Kazakhstan have given cause for thought in a typically Western-dominated field. But what of the

His very first furniture design – for established American brand Bernhardt Design – is an exercise in form follows comfort. Once you're sitting on Jephson Robb's new 'Amri' chair, it's seriously hard to get up again. This invitation to stay put

'Emerging', 'the ones to watch' and 'the stars of tomorrow' are just some of the labels that have been applied of late to young London-based architectural practice Carmody Groarke. Founded just four years ago, the studio has more than proved its

Another year over. But don't get all misty-eyed. Apply that retrospection to some engaging design instead. Two exhibitions currently running, one at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the other at the offices of MariniPandolfi/Comet in Florence, look

Imagine, as a manufacturer, that your potential market is two billion consumers worldwide. This almost inconceivable figure is the ultimate scale of d.light's ambition, a consumer-products company set up by a pair of social entrepreneurs in 2007 to

Ancient city. Contemporary design practice. Jerusalem's inaugural week-long design festival foregrounds once more Israel's conceptually confident and steadily growing design scene.

A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums might no longer be in the business of pageantry. In this first part of a short series examining post-spectacle museums, Museum of Modern Art contemporary architecture